Quicktime 5.1 Surround question

I've been asked to deliver a project as a Quicktime movie with 8 channels of audio - 5.1 with channels 7 & 8 as a stereo pair - embedded and labelled in the file.

I'm having no problems creating a file with the 5.1; send it to Compressor from FCP, add the Quicktime Surround 5.1 setting and render it out. But I can't figure out how to get Compressor to recognise audio tracks 7 and 8 as a separate stereo pair whilst maintaining the 5.1 surround setting. As far as I can tell there's no way to modify the presets in the setting to include a stereo pair with the 5.1.

You might be able to get away with using QT Pro 7 to do this. Do what you're doing to get the 5.1 in there, then open your quicktime in QT Pro. Open your stereo (7&8) audio in QT Pro as well. Select all, copy, close the audio file. Go to the video with the surround audio, park on first frame, and choose Edit->Add to Movie. This should add your stereo audio as another sound track to the quicktime. You can adjust the 'labeling' in the Show Movie Properties dialog. Highlight the Sound Track and in the Audio Settings tab, you can choose what 'label' those channels are.

If the files you import into Compressor already comprise the 8 audio tracks in the correct order, there is the "SMPTE DTV" audio channels setting for Quicktime movies which is exactly what you want. Assemble your tracks in FCP in the correct SMPTE302M order (L R C LFE Ls Rs Lt Rt), export your sequence and bring the resulting file into Compressor, edit your Compressor preset to use this Channels setting and that should do it. I do this on a regular basis without problems. If you go straight from the sequence and Send To Compressor, this Channels setting doesn't work, as FCP folds down to stereo before sending to Compressor.

The Lt/Rt is a stereo mix containing center and mono surround hidden in there through phase manipulation. When played through any system, it's a simple stereo mix, but when played through the correct decoder it's a (kind of) 4.0 mix. It's basically what Dolby called ProLogic on the consumer's side. In almost all cases now, you can just put the true stereo mix on tracks 7-8. Lt/Rt is a bit of a leftover from surround sound workflows from a few years back and is what a lot of fold-down tools will output but is getting quite ancient. I haven't been asked specifically for an Lt/Rt mix in quite a while. If what you have is a stereo mix, put that in and all should be good.

I have a piggyback question:
I want to encode a quicktime file just like the OP, but I want the audio tracks to be encoded as AAC because this is for online distribution. However, the only way I can get the SMPTE DTV setting to appear like you said is by selecting Linear PCM. In AAC mode, the only 5.1 option is (C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE). That's not the order I used, so I imagine that won't work for me. I know it must be possible, because moves purchased from iTunes come with 5.1 AAC audio. I suppose I could re-export from FCP with this nonstandard track order, but is there any other way?

I am delivering an HD Mezzanine file as Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and both our surround and stereo mixes are requested to be in the file. Thanks for pointing out the SMPTE setting as I couldn't find anything else in Compressor that includes all 8 tracks. I followed your instructions exactly (exported an "unselfcontained" QT export of my film with all 8 tracks in correct order from FCP; dropped file in Compressor and adjusted audio settings to LPCM, SMPTE DTV); however, the resulting file has no audio playback. It's completely silent. I've played it back in QT 7, and "Show Movie Properties" does show a sound track. Is there something I'm missing? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all....
I have an issue in tcp 5.1 sequence......I am using fcp with aja kona 3g card and genelec speakers......the format which i need is L R C LFE C LFE....but fcp gives me in following sequence- L R Ls Rs C LFE......i had mapped tracks in the correct order as 1- L, 2- R, 3- C, 4-LFE, 5-Ls, 6-Rs.....and also tried changing sequence settings in preset....but this didnt affect the output of the file i am working with......can anyone plz help me with this issue.....thanks in advance.....

" If you go straight from the sequence and Send To Compressor, this Channels setting doesn't work, as FCP folds down to stereo before sending to Compressor. "

basically trying to do the exact same thing so this sentence caught my eye

should i be exporting my mov to it's own file with 8 discrete tracks THEN put that into compressor and apply my 422 hq with stmpe dtv mix set up to compress?
what's this about making the movie "not self contained" vs self contained? will that effect the reading of the 8 audio tracks by compressor (seems the Elliot guy who jumped on was experiencing a problem with that workflow where the audio didn't show up in the end at all)
trying to save hours of render time if someone could help clarify this workflow?
Thanks

Hi- was wondering if you ever figured out the final workflow for this? I used FCP 7 to export the movie with all appropriate audio files in correct order. This being the first six tracks for the 5.1 mix and then tracks 7 and 8 for stereo R and L.
Looks good when I open the exported file in Quicktime Pro -
I get 7 "Sound Tracks", with the 7th being the "Left, Right" assignment. Though Sound tracks 1-6 have an assignment of "Mono."

Was wondering if I needed to assign the 1-6 with their exact specified names to match the SMPTE DTV specs, IE: "L, R, C...." or assigning them as "discrete" per the example further up in this thread.

The reason I ask this is because when I put this exported file in Compressor and set up a Apple Pro Res 422 setting with the proper Linear PCM/SMPTE DTV audio setting, I also get a final file that has no sound.(Playing on desktop) It does however show in Quicktime Pro with only one Sound Track this time- and in "assinments" it lists all eight tracks: Left, Right, Center, LFE Screen, Left Surround, Right Surround, Left Total and Right Total.

I guess the ultimate question is, did I do it right? and I just can't check it on the desktop properly without decoding? Or am I half way there and need to do some "assigning" in Quicktime Pro, save then place in Compressor for the final render?

It doesn't seem that it's enough that they are in the correct order before using the Compressor channels setting. If you don't set the pan of each channel in QuickTime Pro before sending the file to Compressor, then each channel stays panned to mono and the resulting file has all the audio in the first two channels (L & R) panned to mono and the rest of the channels (C, LFE, LS, RS) are silent.